Chapter Text
In Midoriya Izuku’s entire life, he has experienced planning things down to the very last minute, and still, something goes wrong. It’s one of those things that make life ‘life’, he thinks - the inability to predict every possible outcome, for something to fail even if all things considered, it shouldn’t have. For a small, insignificant detail to end up being the deciding factor on whether something goes wrong or not. These mistakes are simply part of the human experience - stumbling and falling and picking yourself back again.
Usually, Midoriya fully embraces it when it happens - but not in the middle of a battle where lives are at stake.
Especially not now .
One moment, everything was going well.
They have successfully lured All for One to appear before them with Aoyama's help. Monoma perfectly accomplished all of the tasks assigned to him - from bringing the heroes into the place they ambushed All for One in, to creating numerous warp portals after dividing the villains - just so that they can be easily distributed to different locations.
All that is left is for the heroes, Midoriya included, to enter their assigned warp portals. He was sticking close to the side of the heroes he was supposed to be with - Bakugo, Mirko, and a few others.
And then, he felt it. The sharp stabbing pain in his temples.
Danger Sense.
It didn’t take more than a second after his danger sense gave him a warning as a black, swirling hole appeared behind him - the light around it is distorted, resembling a black hole. Midoriya’s eyes widen in horror as he becomes unable to control any of his limbs - from his legs to his fingertips, not even just a twitch.
He releases black whip, hoping that he could even just hold on to something, but the tendrils themselves get absorbed by the darkness, no longer under his control. The void is swallowing him whole, the impossibly strong gravity pulling him and rendering his body immobile, like he is wrapped in tape and it tightens every millisecond to ensure he couldn’t be free, constricting his blood flow. Had it taken longer, Midoriya thinks he would have exploded from the pressure alone.
The last thing he hears and sees before the black swirling hole swallowed him completely almost felt like it happened in slow motion - Bakugo turning around in his direction and yelling out his name in panic, trying to reach out even if part of his body is already inside Monoma’s warp portal.
His yells turn a few heads, and Midoriya can make out the long pink tongue of Asui reaching out to him amidst the chaos despite everything becoming a bit blurry to him, but it was too late.
Midoriya’s vision goes dark.
All of it probably only lasted a millisecond, but it felt longer in his head. He was a floating mass in a sea of void - not even a single light source that can help him see his own body was there. There was no noise to be heard, not even his own ragged breathing, the rapid panicked beating of his heart, or the movement of his organs - like his eardrums have exploded and no sound could enter at all. Wherever he was, sound could not travel inside of it, and the boy fears going insane the longer he stays.
Midoriya has never felt fear and helplessness this strong before - all control of himself is lost. He cannot see and the gravitational pull on this world of void was so strong to be able to move properly - it was overpowering him like he was being pinned down by an extremely strong force. Not even Kurogiri’s warp portals felt like this. It was something completely different.
It was a quirk they never accounted for. As dread fills Midoriya’s heart, he thinks to himself: ‘What the hell is this quirk?’
After what felt like forever, dots of white stain the world of void he was in. When a new hole appeared, there was no sound - just a small, blinding white light. Midoriya was pulled into it immediately by a force similar to the void that swallowed him. He has no idea what’s on the other side of that forming portal.
After being engulfed by the new swirling hole of light, Midoriya feels his hearing and sense of touch gradually return. Silence transitions into sounds, and the pressure slowly weakens and he feels like he’s weightless, like the heaviness pinning him down was lifted completely away from him and he could freely move his limbs again. Every sound and sensation feels like they’ve been turned up a notch, and he could hear footsteps, a few voices from a distance that sounded like gibberish in his ears, and sounds of fire crackling, of water flowing, and of bones snapping. His body felt numb and cold from the pressure in the void, but he could finally feel his blood flowing in his entire body again. It feels a little warmer.
Midoriya finds himself lying face down on brown, moist, but otherwise hard soil. Aside from the initial pain of the impact, there was no serious injury from the fall. Midoriya opens his eyes and is almost blinded by being able to see, but when he lifts his body up into a proper sitting position and his vision readjusted, he recognizes the sight of a familiar domed glass ceiling and a bunch of tall trees.
“Isn’t this... the USJ?” He thinks to himself as he sits up, dusting away some of the soil that had stuck on his clothes.
Midoriya reorients himself, trying to grasp the situation he’s in. He’s been separated from the rest of the heroes, probably because of the vital role he plays in the war. He internally curses when he thinks of their carefully crafted plan to defeat the villains. He was indeed a vital part of their game-plan, and it’s going to cause a huge problem if he isn’t on the battlefield.
The plan revolved around him. He’s the last person they needed disappearing in the middle of the war.
Without further ado, Midoriya stands up and immediately uses float to bypass the obstacles in the Mountain Area of the USJ. His hand reaches for the radio, knowing that he needs to regroup with the other heroes immediately and that he needs to tell them first where he is. Lives are at stake and he can’t mess this up. He attempts to contact Aizawa or any of the other heroes through his communication device, but all he hears is the buzzing sound of static.
“Shoot, the comms are broken. I need to leave this place right away,” he says to himself as he gives up on trying to make the device work. This happened in the first war, and Midoriya isn’t surprised about it happening once again. It’s still a huge inconvenience though.
As his eyes rest on the USJ’s entrance and plaza, confusion takes over him at first at the sight he sees. Midoriya sees himself, his classmates, Aizawa, and some very familiar villains scattered all over the plaza and the entrance, blocking his way out.
The first thing that caught his eye was the looming dark figure of the noumu and its exposed brain, pinning down Aizawa to the floor, body broken and beaten to a pulp, drops of blood and cracks on the floor where his body meets the ground. Not so far away is Shigaraki, his hair still a light blue and his body still thin and fragile-looking, a huge difference from the Shigaraki he fought not so long ago - white-haired and strong.
This is still the Shigaraki from earlier in the school year - weaker, and a lot less experienced.
And then, in the water, was a younger, smaller version of him. He was with Asui and Mineta, staring at the broken body of their teacher, eyes widened and face pale at the noumu’s violence.
“Looks like leaving is going to take some time...” he thinks to himself, stopping in mid-air for a while to think of what to do next.
Midoriya has no idea what is going on, but upon his eyes resting on the body of the nearly unconscious Aizawa, his body moved on its own before his brain could even process a possible explanation of what he’s seeing exactly.
Midoriya already knew how this fight went, and yet the thought that 'we cannot lose Aizawa' dominated his senses, and he was on his feet immediately.
He lets One for All course through his body and kicks himself off of his spot, aiming for Shigaraki, yelling and catching everyone's attention as he blasts himself forward. The soles of his shoes hit the villain’s head, and Midoriya hears a satisfying crunch as the villain’s nose meets his iron soles, falling backward as the hand that covers his face skids away.
Midoriya gracefully lands on the floor, landing on the soles of his feet and balancing himself with a hand on the ground, meeting the shocked eyes of everyone - Aizawa, Asui, Mineta... and himself.
Green eyes meet green eyes, and Midoriya takes in the image of his younger self that he’s seeing staring back at him.
It was strange looking at the younger version of himself - he looked completely different. The younger version’s body had muscles, but was significantly a lot less defined than how he currently is. He didn’t quite notice how bulkier he has gotten since entering UA. Fresh out of middle school, his cheeks were still full of baby fat, and there were no heavy bags underneath his eyes from the sleepless nights he spent after leaving UA. His younger version stares back, like a deer caught in the headlights, probably also trying to figure out what he’s looking at.
He was young. Innocent. A child who has no idea what is yet to come.
“Who... who...” Shigaraki’s voice interrupts his thoughts, shaky as he feels up the ground to search for the hand that used to be on his face. Blood drips down from his nose, droplets staining the ground with red. As he finally finds the hand he was looking for, the villain wipes away the blood and spreads some of it on his cheek before placing the dismembered body part back to cover his face. His voice becomes a lot more stable, but still equally as furious as it was before. “Who are you? Why are you here? I didn’t send you an invite!” the villain growls, his only exposed eye staring down Midoriya, red pupils burning in fury.
“Shigaraki Tomura,” Midoriya responds back through gritted teeth as he stands up properly, bending his legs and raising his fists to prepare his battle stance in case the villains attack him, a smile on his face. Shigaraki’s eyes widen at the mention of his name. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you look like that.”
The aforementioned villain reaches for his neck, scratching it repeatedly as he grumbles. “Who are you?”
“Oh, me?” Midoriya beams, pointing at himself as he feigns amusement. “Nothing but an NPC.”
The villain seethes at his unserious response.
Shigaraki is distracted by him right now, which is good. Midoriya knows better now and knows how the Shigaraki of this time responds to a bit of taunting. A little bit of irritation is enough for him to take his attention.
From what Midoriya recalls, the noumu in USJ only follows Shigaraki’s orders and will not move unless explicitly told to do so. If everything goes according to plan, he can get Shigaraki to focus on him, the noumu will go after him and that means Aizawa can be set free. Midoriya will then place his teacher as well as the younger version of himself and his classmates somewhere far away. All he has to do then is to incapacitate Shigaraki himself and the noumu would end up being an unmoving body of muscle.
“What an annoying NPC,” Shigaraki grumbles at Midoriya, intensifying the scratching on his neck, which the hero takes as a good sign. The villain is annoyed by his presence. That’s all the opening he needs. “Noumu, crush him.”
The moment the noumu’s body lets go of the limp figure of Aizawa on the ground, Midoriya yells.
“Get Aizawa-sensei far away from here and hide!” he yells instructions to Asui, Mineta, and his younger self.
Asui, ever the calm figure in chaotic situations, nods at him, understanding that he just created an opening for them to escape. She jumps onto land and lets her tongue take Aizawa, carefully making sure she doesn’t make his injuries worse and hops far away. Mineta and the younger Midoriya - who was looking at him from his shoulder as he runs - trail after her.
Now that the four of them are out of the way, this gives Midoriya more space to move without risking accidentally hurting someone he cares about. He’s the only hero and student left standing in the plaza. Feeling a sharp, stabbing pain in his temples, Midoriya moves, narrowly escaping the noumu’s attack. As the noumu recovers, Midoriya feels a stabbing pain in his head again, and successfully dodges an attempted punch from the noumu. The pattern continues for a while, almost like a dance. A stabbing pain and dodging. A stabbing pain and dodging. A stabbing pain and dodging. It could probably go on forever, but Midoriya knows he can’t waste his energy here.
With black whip, Midoriya captures the body of the noumu, focusing his energy on his arms so that he could carry its heavy weight, and flings it towards Shigaraki, who was too slow to dodge.
A crash, and dust settle around them. Midoriya couldn’t see Aizawa and the other three anymore, but the entrance is visible, where the other students such as Uraraka look on at the scene in the plaza. Thirteen is badly injured, barely keeping it together, but the rest of his classmates in the entrance are okay. Iida wasn’t with them, which means he’s already left the building and has called for the pro-heroes. The entrance is being guarded by the misty figure of Kurogiri, which means Midoriya needs to end this before he can escape and regroup with the others.
Midoriya still doesn’t know why he’s here and why he’s reliving USJ, but the people in this place aren’t illusions - he can assure of that. They are living, breathing, younger versions of himself, his friends, and the villains. The heat emanating from their bodies is real, and the fear, concern, and surprise in their faces are real.
Midoriya wonders for a little if the black hole has sent him into a pocket universe meant to recreate the events of USJ, and tries to think of why it chose to recreate the USJ attack specifically. There are a lot of questions running in his head, but instead of dwelling on them, he opts to smile at his classmates at the entrance. He had no idea why he did that and why he was compelled to do so. He assumes it stems from an unconscious desire to reassure them that he’s okay and he can handle this.
Shigaraki now stands in front of him, a hand on his head as he recovers from being crushed by the noumu, and points an accusing finger at Midoriya.
“You!” The villain yells, hysterical. “You’re using cheats, aren’t you? You were flying, and then those black things... there’s no way you’re not cheating! Only he has multiple quirks!”
He? Midoriya takes note. He was certainly referring to All for One, wasn’t he?
At that moment, Kurogiri appears in the form of a black, body-less mist with a face.
“Tomura Shigaraki,” Kurogiri starts.
“Kurogiri.” Shigaraki acknowledges the presence of the villain and asks, “Is thirteen dead?”
“They’re incapacitated but...” The misty villain pauses a little, fully knowing his next words will anger the other. “There were some students I couldn’t warp away... and one of them escaped.”
“Oh.”
There was silence at first, until Shigaraki scratches his neck once again, much more agitated than before, leaving traces of red on the skin on his neck. Midoriya thinks he sees forming beads of blood.
“Kurogiri... I’d turn you to dust if you weren’t our ticket out of here.” the villain screeches, fury now directed towards his misty comrade. “We won’t stand a chance against dozens of pros. It’s game over, man. It’s game over for now.”
Midoriya remembers this part, where Shigaraki mentions retreating but intending to kill a few kids before doing so, and then All Might enters to fight the noumu- the injuries he sustains from this fight further shortening his already shortened timespan in his hero form.
Midoriya knows he needs to get rid of the noumu immediately as it’s the biggest obstacle and is the main attack dog, but he also knows his abilities very well. The noumu was dangerous for All Might even at his 100%. At this point, Midoriya can only do a pseudo-100% by utilizing Fa Jin, but there’s no guarantee it is enough. The last time this happened, All Might had to exceed his own 100% to beat it.
Midoriya needs to find a way to get around this. What does he remember?
He remembered Shigaraki mentioning that the noumu can only be killed if you piece it apart slowly, but on one hand, he also remembers that the police mentioned that the noumu was unresponsive when it was found in the forest area just outside of USJ. They deduced it most likely only moved when given commands and was not capable of thinking for itself.
An idea forms in the teenage hero’s head. He lets One for All course through his arms, wrapping it in bright green energy.
“But before we leave... maybe we can leave a few dead bodies lying around...”
As Shigaraki continues to speak, Midoriya uses the unintentionally offered distraction as an opportunity and lets the tendrils of black whip take hold of the body of the unmoving noumu, focusing his energy into his arms to be able to carry its heavy weight, swinging it around before eventually aiming for it to hit the domed glass ceiling, destroying the glass and throwing the body of the creature far away from the USJ and Shigaraki’s control.
The noumu is gone.
While he cannot kill the noumu at his current level, he can definitely render it useless with the abilities he already has: send it somewhere far away from where the villains are. It is going to take some time before they can retrieve it, plus the noumu wouldn’t attack anyone outside on its own without commands.
Just like how Midoriya was the person whom the plan to defeat the villains in the second war revolved around on, the attack on USJ was planned around the noumu’s strength that can rival that of All Might. By getting rid of the noumu, he gets rid of the heart of the mission, greatly limiting their options.
Midoriya lets his eyes fall on the misty body of Kurogiri, formulating a plan in his head. Now that he’s gotten rid of the attack dog, the damage the villains can do within the facility is greatly reduced. The next thing he needs to do is not provide them any exits to escape, which means he needs to knock down the mist villain unconscious.
If Kurogiri is taken care of, the villain exits close down, and the exit for him and the other hero students opens up.
“You’re really pissing me off!” Shigaraki yells as he lunges after Midoriya, his hand outstretched. Midoriya recognizes this immediately and kicks with one for all, affecting the air pressure around him creating a strong enough gust of wind to push Shigaraki and Kurogiri backward. Shigaraki then looks at his hand and then at Midoriya, confusion on his face.
“You knew what my quirk is too, didn’t you?” The villain accuses, venom in his voice with every word he utters. Blood flows in his nose again - most likely broken.
Midoriya refuses to answer, keeping his mouth shut as he prepares his battle stance once again and releases smoke to obscure his own movements, bending his legs and letting All for One course through them. Kurogiri is just behind Shigaraki, and if he’s fast enough, he can take him out with a smash.
A crash at the entrance, and Midoriya’s face brightens as he recognizes the big bulky silhouette despite the thick smoke the impact has created. The strong sunlight served as the newcomer’s backdrop, shadowing his face. Still wearing the button-down shirt, necktie, and slacks he wears to attend classes - All Might has come, his face wearing not his signature smile, but an uncharacteristic angry frown.
“Fear not,” the pro-hero says through gritted teeth. “For I am here.”
“All might!” Midoriya exclaims, and so do a few other students from the distance.
Without a noumu to take up All Might’s time and cause injury, this skews the winning chances towards the heroes and the students by a huge margin. It will take long to retrieve the noumu to get him to fight All Might, and neither Kurogiri nor Shigaraki are skilled enough to take on the Number one hero at this time. Their only choice is to be defeated or to run away.
“Fuck,” the villain curses. “Kurogiri, it’s really game over for now. Get us out of here,” Shigaraki demands upon the sight of the strongest hero in Japan, his choice between defeat or running away is obvious. “We will have to continue this some other time.”
Kurogiri does what is told and opens up a familiar black warp portal. Midoriya is once again reminded of Monoma, of the second war, and of the place he’s supposed to be in. Before entering the portal, Shigaraki turns his head towards Midoriya’s direction, studying every detail, trying to imprint the image of his face in his head before he points a finger at him.
“I will remember you, and the next time I see you, I will kill you,” the villain warns. "This won't be the last time we will see each other, hero ."
Shigaraki and Kurogiri disappear, leaving behind a wake of destruction, and hundreds of small-time villains in different states of defeat.
It’s over.
Midoriya stands, looking at the space where the two stood just a few seconds ago when he felt the looming presence of All Might standing beside him.
“Midoriya, my boy... is that you?”
Midoriya looks at him - at the bulky, tall, strong All Might that he hasn’t seen in front of him for the longest time. He knows this All Might is running out of time already, but Midoriya feels nostalgia sweep over him as the man’s hero form stays - for a second, and then another more, and then another more. Midoriya’s vision blurs, and beads of tears form in the corner of his eyes, which he wipes off before it rolls down his cheek.
At this time, he was still the number one hero. He was still standing tall as the Symbol of Peace. He's strong and he can still fight.
Midoriya wonders what the entire situation looks like for the All Might of this time. He looks like the Midoriya he probably knows, but at the same time, he’s different. The Midoriya of this time didn’t have iron soles or gauntlets - he hasn’t even figured out the kind of equipment he needs just yet. Let alone the fact that he’s wearing a tattered yellow cape - Gran Torino’s gift to him after being badly injured in the first war. Midoriya doesn’t doubt that All Might recognizes its bright yellow color, its distinctive collar, and the familiar button decorations. It would definitely be a source of confusion. He hasn’t introduced Midoriya yet to Gran Torino when the USJ incident happened.
The boy wonders what kind of theories the pro-hero has been forming in his head.
“Aizawa-sensei is badly injured,” Midoriya simply states, ignoring the millions of questions left unsaid between the two of them. “He’s with Asui, Mineta, and... me-Midoriya,” he adds, not quite sure of the better way to refer to the younger version of himself.
One last time, he looks at the hero form of All Might - the man he has admired for almost his entire life. He wonders when his admiration of All Might turned into something else - something more akin to a son and his father instead of a hero and a fan, instead of just a mentor and a successor.
But Midoriya knows he has important stuff to do, and he trains his eyes towards the entrance of the USJ and crouches.
“I need to go. I have a place I need to be.”
With green energy wrapping his legs, Midoriya makes a beeline for the exit, ignoring the curious gazes of everyone else.
Whatever happened inside USJ is behind him now. He has urgent matters to attend to.
Midoriya floats, trying to recall the exact coordinates of the battleground in the sky that they created just for Shigaraki. He’s memorized all of the coordinates just for emergency purposes, and now, he’s glad that he did. Now that he’s far away from USJ, Midoriya tries to check if his communication device is finally working again. He attempts to contact Aizawa, but all he hears once again is the familiar static sound of a broken radio. He attempts to contact other heroes instead, but without much luck. He sighs, quickening his pace instead of being annoyed.
As Midoriya floats into the sky towards the coordinates he knows he’s supposed to be, he overlooks the city, and his eyes widen at what he sees below him. He halts and takes in the view from the sky.
It’s the city - alive and well. It was a far cry from the wreckage he remembers it to be like. The establishments that Midoriya remembered to have been destroyed are still standing tall, without a single damage. The news reports and advertisements on the big screens talk about heroes: some of who he recognizes as retirees, and some who died during the first war. One big screen on a tall building in particular mentioned an exclusive live interview with heroes Midnight and Mount lady a few days from now, which should be impossible since Midnight is dead.
In fact, the atmosphere that the city he's looking at currently has is impossible in post-war Japan. It's too... normal. Too colorful. Too lively.
Midoriya lets his eyes fall on the streets. People are out and about, happy smiles everywhere, no fear on their faces about escaped Tartarus villains or League Members. There’s not a single remnant of the first war in the city that Midoriya sees below him. It doesn’t even look like a city that is reeling from the retirement of All Might.
Midoriya has ideas about what is going on. He doesn’t want to be right.
Tsukauchi is confused.
It is part of the job as a policeman in a superhero society, really. They had to investigate lots of cases wherein, due to the involvement of quirks, the witness statements seem utterly bizarre, confusing, and make absolutely no sense. The attack on USJ - or particularly, ‘the mysterious heroic identity that appeared to defend the students in USJ’ - is one such case.
The detective sighs as he rereads his written notes from his various interviews with the Class 1-A students. Many important details, but they still couldn’t figure out the identity of the person that forced the villains to retreat.
“He looks like Deku! He has this green hero costume that looks like his but with some differences, a yellow cape, and his quirk is different. He flies and releases some black vines or something and he also has green electricity on his body sometimes. But he looks just like Deku!”
“He looked very experienced, kero. He knew my name and Mineta’s without even asking us. He also called Aizawa ‘sensei’. I think he was also familiar with the villain. He called him ‘Shigaraki Tomura’, kero.”
“There’s no way that’s Deku. Saw that green bastard fight and it’s nothing like him. Don’t know why the fuck they had the twerp’s face.”
“I have unfortunately not seen this ‘yellow cape-wearing Midoriya’ that my classmates have mentioned. He must have appeared right after I escaped to call for help. I am afraid I have no insight to offer which can be used in figuring out his identity.”
“He looks like he has multiple quirks. Maybe borrowing a face is one of them? What if he’s some new vigilante with many quirks?”
“Is he not Midoriya’s brother?”
“I am not sure if it’s related, but I did hear a strange sound shortly before that Midoriya lookalike appeared. Like some whirring noise and very heavy breathing. I think he got in through a portal of some sort, but I’m not sure if it’s by the same misty villain guy that attacked us.”
“I’m just as confused as everyone else.”
Tsukauchi looks at the green-haired boy sitting across from him, fiddling with his fingers as he looks down at his hands. The detective is sitting in front of the real Midoriya Izuku - All Might’s successor, a fifteen-year-old student from UA’s class 1-A. It's only the two of them inside the room. The boy is still young, still very inexperienced, and a ball of nerves. Tsukauchi doesn’t mean to demean the boy, but he doesn’t seem like he can do what the other students said their green stranger did - not as a critique of his personality, but last time he checked, the boy can’t fly and can’t release black vines through his skin.
(The detective asked the boy if he can, and the teenager said he can’t, which the detective’s quirk says is the truth.)
Tsukauchi writes down Midoriya's responses on his notes and asks, “So you’re saying you have no relation to this person - who looks a lot like you - who fought against the villains and then disappeared?”
“Yes. I really don't have any connection with him.”
“Not even like a long-lost brother?”
“No. I had always been an only child,” Midoriya quickly denies. “I'm sorry. I really wish I knew more.” The boy sighs, frustration from not knowing appearing in the form of furrowed brows and clenched knuckles. “Just... who is he? He has my face and he knows me and he knows the rest of the class... but he’s not me. Why is he using my face? How did he know me? Why... why me? I just have a lot of things I want to ask.”
The detective’s quirk registers the entire statement as true, nodding before closing his notes and resting them on the table. He smiles at the green-haired teenager. It’s time to end the session.
“That’s all we needed to know, unless you want to add more?” He asks, and the boy shakes his head. “Okay, then. Thank you for cooperating. Don't worry about not knowing too much about the stranger - every testimony is important to paint the bigger picture.” Tsukauchi places both hands on the table in front of him and softens his face, hoping to himself that he looks reassuring enough. “We’ll find him, don’t worry. You have my number and All Might’s registered in your phone already, right?”
“Yeah,” the boy nods.
“Put any of us two on your speed dial. We don’t know the stranger’s intentions, but we believe he painted a massive target on your back because he used your face while fighting against the villains. Take extra precautions, and if you think you’re in any danger, make sure to call us or just send us your location. We’ll figure it out from there.”
“Thank you, Detective Tsukauchi.”
“Alright. You’re dismissed. Just wait for Toshinori to finish his and we'll send you home - just as a safety thing. I know this has been a very strange day for you. If you remember anything else, you have my number.”
“Y-yes. Thank you.” Midoriya stands and bows. “Good luck on your investigation!”
The boy heads for the door, and Tsukauchi sees the figure of his friend Toshinori Yagi - which is All Might outside of his hero form - waiting on the other side, most likely waiting for Midoriya’s questioning to end. The pro-hero converses with the teenager for a little bit. It’s Toshinori’s turn to talk to him for questioning next - a process that not even the top hero is exempted from, of course. In the meantime, the detective opens his notes to go over them once again, scratching his head as he flips through the pages containing the testimonies of the students, going over the facts.
The mysterious stranger has Midoriya’s face but has multiple quirks: the ability to fly and the ability to release black webs/vines, but he also has really fast movements and incredible strength - so that makes it three or four quirks at least.
According to Jirou Kyouka, there is a possibility that he entered through a portal.
Statements by Mineta Minoru, Asui Tsuyu, and Midoriya Izuku suggest he knows everyone’s names and calls Aizawa ‘sensei’, and is familiar enough with them to call their names casually.
All witnesses say he wears a different costume from that of Midoriya Izuku, and that he was seen wearing a tattered yellow cape.
The three students in the plaza also mentioned the possibility that he is familiar with the villains and was heard calling them by their names - the ‘Shigaraki Tomura’ that Asui Tsuyu mentioned in her interview seems to match with the testimonies of the captured small-time villains.
Speaking of the villains, they also have the black creature with a beak and exposed brains to worry about - some students said the villains called it ‘noumu’. The creature was unmoving when it was found lying on the ground not far away from USJ, and witnesses say it was the mysterious figure that threw it far away from the place. They still need to run tests on the said creature to figure out what it is exactly, but the small-time villains mentioned that it was ‘created in purpose to defeat All Might’.
That was concerning, but as they await the results of the tests, Tsukauchi busies himself with the next mystery they need to solve: the identity of the person who defeated ‘the creature meant to defeat All Might’.
He’s lying to himself if he says the testimonies about the person having multiple quirks don’t concern him at all - he’s only known one such person... a monster, as he prefers to call him. And if the stranger ends up having any connection to the said monster, the detective is afraid of what it entails, and this might be a bigger problem than initially thought.
Tsukauchi places a hand on his chin, before picking up a pen to write his thoughts on his notes.
‘In relation to Midoriya Izuku: Dimension travel? Time-travel? Plain Identity-theft?’
‘Possibly connected to h̸̭̝͓͛̅̉ï̶̹̣m̸͕̖̘͆̀̋ villains’
He refuses to spell out the villain’s name in the notes. The 'him' was scribbled out as a last minute decision.
The detective hears the door swing open, and he whips his head to face its direction, welcomed by the sight of Toshinori Yagi, wearing a professional suit that matches his newfound teaching profession. He just finished talking with his successor. The tall, lanky man waves a hand as he makes his way to sit on the vacant plastic chair in front of the detective.
“It’s my turn for questioning, isn’t it?”
Tsukauchi nods. “Start from the beginning, from how you were informed about what happened in USJ.”
Toshinori speaks, retelling the events of the morning leading up to his appearance in the USJ - from overusing his quirk so he couldn’t welcome the class in USJ as originally planned, being trapped by Nedzu, and then escaping from the principal’s clutches, meeting Iida on the way to USJ, his own entrance, about how he hasn’t seen a ‘big black creature with a beak and exposed brain’ at all, and how the villains immediately left to retreat at the sight of him. Tsukauchi takes note of all of it.
“And the Midoriya lookalike...? You saw him didn’t you?” The detective questions.
“Yes. Yes, I did,” Toshinori answers, looking down at the table, deep in thought. “I tried to talk to him, but all he told me is that Aizawa is injured and that he has somewhere he needed to be. He looked like he’s in a hurry.”
Tsukauchi nods. They didn’t have a lot of details regarding the boy leaving USJ. He wonders what it could be that he needed to do and why he was in a hurry. As he lists down these details, Toshinori continues to speak.
“Tsukauchi, he was... he was wearing Gran Torino’s cape, but it was tattered and ruined. When I recognized it, I feared... I feared what it meant.”
The detective’s hand stops from writing and he lifts his head to look at Toshinori’s face. The statement rang true according to his quirk, and it seemed like the ‘yellow cape’ that the students had referred to was indeed a ruined version of the one owned by Toshinori’s old teacher - Gran Torino. It was an important lead, one that says the mysterious stranger is possibly affiliated with Gran Torino, but it was also worrying what the ruined clothes implied. The old hero has been laying low for a long time now, but he was still doing hero activities and has a teaching license with him still.
‘Related to Gran Torino?’ the detective adds to his note, filled with scribbled text of his growing list of theories.
“We need to make calls to Gran Torino’s residence after this, then,” Tsukauchi tells his friend, writing it down on his notes as some sort of reminder. “When you saw him, did you think it was the real Midoriya, or did you immediately recognize that something was off?”
“I knew something was off. I saw the yellow cape first before anything else. But when I tried to talk to him, he didn’t feel like a ‘fake’ Midoriya Izuku. He was definitely a Midoriya Izuku.”
Tsukauchi nods once again, registering the response as true. He opens the page in the notes where he wrote his theories, and on top of ‘plain identity-theft', he writes a note: All Might doesn’t think so.
“So, let me reiterate, you don’t think this guy was an impostor pretending to be your student, but that he’s some ‘version’ of your student. Is that correct?”
“Yes.” All Might nods. “When he saw me, he responded with recognition. He also mentioned ‘Midoriya’ to be among the students who were with Aizawa. I don’t think he will acknowledge him if he’s really trying to take his identity. I think that’s just really how he looks.”
Tsukauchi reclines in his seat, placing a hand on his chin, thinking carefully about all the information he has gathered on the stranger and how Toshinori’s new information would fit with what he already knows. Toshinori had always been a trustworthy man - it comes with being the Symbol of Peace, the best hero in Japan. Tsukauchi doesn’t doubt the man’s judgement and instincts, especially with matters regarding his successor as well as with identifying villains.
“You know,” Tsukauchi says, lowering his voice. “There’s something I think you need to know about that stranger that confuses me... terrifies me, even, if my theory is correct.”
“What is it?” The hero leans in, nervous, lowering his voice to match the detective.
“That stranger...” The detective begins, pausing to prepare himself for his next words. “It seems he had multiple quirks.”
He visibly sees the gradual understanding that dawns on the hero’s face. Toshinori’s eyes widen, and the man coughs up blood on the spot from the sheer shock. Tsukauchi offers him a tissue which the man accepts, wiping off the blood on his chin. After cleaning himself up, he looks at the detective straight in the eye.
“Do you think...?”
They didn’t have to finish it. They both knew what it meant.
"He can't be alive," All Might adds, placing a hand on his forehead the weight of the new information. "He's dead. Tsukauchi, you were there. He's dead."
The moment was interrupted by loud footsteps from outside of the door. A slam, and the door opens to reveal one of the police officers, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead, a panicked expression on his face.
“S-sir... the mysterious stranger in USJ is here… he’s waiting in the reception area.”
The detective and the pro-hero share a look with one another before they both stand up from their seats.
“We’ll continue this later,” Tsukauchi says, and Toshinori nods.
The policeman didn’t have to say another word as they both followed him and they were led towards the reception area.
He has no idea why the mysterious figure would come here on his own, but with Tsukauchi’s theories, he decides to play it safe by placing one hand on the gun around his waist - more as a precaution than to intentionally cause harm. They don't know this person nor do they know his motives, after all. He could be related to who is perhaps the most dangerous villain in Japan.
All for One, the detective thinks, furrowing his brows as he remembers the final moments of the villain during the fight with All Might eight years ago. He personally saw the corpse, and he also personally had to help All Might out who had his insides destroyed. Tsukauchi would prefer it if it was really just his paranoia kicking in and this stranger actually has no connection to All for One whatsoever, and that All for One is already burning, rotting, and suffering somewhere in hell.
All for One should never come back.
Upon reaching the reception area of the police station, Tsukauchi lets his eyes rest on the waiting area where he finds Midoriya Izuku sitting on one of the blue plastic chairs.
No, the detective mentally corrects himself. Not Midoriya Izuku — it’s the mysterious stranger in USJ.
Tsukauchi's eyes search for the actual Midoriya Izuku. He was waiting for Toshinori's questioning to end and they had him wait in this area. His face softens in relief as he spots the teenager in the corner of the room, hidden from the stranger by a few policemen who stood in their spots strategically to hide him from the unknown person. The boy doesn't seem afraid - he even tries to take a peek at the mysterious figure himself, curiosity taking over rather than fear.
As the detective rests his eyes on the seated stranger once again, he notices that everything the students mentioned about the person’s appearance seems to ring true: he looked exactly like Midoriya Izuku, but Tsukauchi catches details they failed to mention - the little differences, like how less baby fat he had on his face and how more pronounced his cheekbones were, the deep dark circles underneath his eyes that made him look like he hasn’t slept in a long time, and the dull quality in his eyes that looked like it has seen so much. He looked like he was a little older than the Midoriya Izuku he knew.
The person, proving the testimonies correct, was indeed wearing a different and more detailed green hero costume, with equipment on his arm and legs that he knows Midoriya doesn’t have. Tsukauchi also recognizes Gran Torino’s cape, tattered and ruined just like what All Might told him. Tsukauchi’s breath hitches upon taking in the sight of it.
The stranger notices it immediately when the two arrive, and he stands up. His face, formerly donning a lost expression, like a boy worried while waiting for a hurt friend in the hospital, was immediately replaced by the softening of muscles and a relieved sigh.
Tsukauchi clears his throat, breaking the silence and halting the murmured whispers going around in the station, all eyes on the area as everyone look in curiosity, some standing alert just in case anything goes wrong, especially those that surrounded the real Midoriya Izuku. The stranger had come to the station of their own accord - and even if they don’t know if he’s an ally or a foe just yet, Tsukauchi was sure this means something. Without beating around the bush, the detective speaks.
“What do you need?”
He said the words as calm as he can, a smile in his face which he always reserves for the people who come to the station in need. The boy waited for them and didn’t just barge into the station to attack, so the detective sees no reason to welcome him with hostility, even as he clutches the gun by his waist. Tsukauchi does not know what he expected the person to do, but it was definitely not what he said next. His hand that touched the gun drops immediately as the person says the following words.
“I need your help.”
The detective’s quirk says it’s true.